about 100 years ago, a flavourist\perfumer visited a pulp & paper plant. If you never have been near a place that makes pulp & paper, you don't know how bad those places smell. This person could smell a vanilla note in the bad odour and found a way to extract this chemical from wood lignin to make naturally derived vanilla flavour. We know today that vanillin in oak is one compound that dopes wine and aged spirits.

Vanillin and similar parent chemical compounds that it can be derived from, like eugenol (clove taste), are ubiquitous in the plant world. I always thought that was an interesting story of serendipity.

Mtullius, one story I heard about the origin of yogurt was this ... A legend has it that a messenger to Genghis Khan or the famed warrior himself had a skin flask, and a disgruntled villager that they had seized filled it with milk instead of water. The villager hoped to poison him with soured milk during his journey of conquest. Instead, the curdled milk became yogurt and strongly fortified the horseman.

VELCRO was invented by a Greek man living in Connecticut . While walking thru the woods all of these little things(stickers) stuck to his socks and pants legs. He went home and analyzed them and wella Velcro was developed.

Microwave ovens. An engineer while walking into a lab owned by Ratheon (Radar Range the original) had a chocolate bar in his pocket , they were doing research for the government on microwaves for submarine applications , as he exited the lab the chocolate bar was completely melted in his shirt pocket. That's how they found out you could heat food by using confined magnetism.

Chef EdBOver 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...

Chef EdBOver 50 years in food service business 35 as Ex Chef. Specializing in Volume upscale Catering both on and off premise .(former Exec. Chef in the largest on premise caterer in US with 17 Million Dollars per year annual volume). Well versed in all facets of Continental Cuisine...

Thanks Luc_H. I thought kefir was just another type of yogurt. But now I know they're made by encouraging the growth of different types of bacteria. What you say makes sense. I've made yogurt and it does require heat.

Since replying here I have been researching the possible history of yoghurt and found many indications that say milk conserved in animal skin bags was the initial way to make yoghurt. From a food science perspective, that could be the case if the term yoghurt is used as a broad term for fermented/acidified milk in which case everybody is right. Conserving milk in animal skin bags would make something that would resemble kefir more than (modern) yoghurt. There is a tradition in Caucasus of storing milk in sheep skin containing kefir grains.

Obviously we do not really know how any of these fermented products looked, felt or tasted like in those days but kefir is much more resilient as a starter culture than yoghurt cultures because

Kefir grains can be dried and easily carried to every corner of the world in prehistoric/ancient times not so with yoghurt. On the other hand, yoghurt (fermented milk) can be made just with raw milk without adding anything to it.

According to historian andHerald for Wales, Major Francis Jones, 1908–93, the introduction of the recipe can be attributed to Captain Henry Lewis Edwardes 1788–1866. Edwardes, originally ofRhyd-y-gors, Carmarthenshire, was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and held the position of Deputy-Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire. He is believed to have brought the recipe home after travels in India.

When the recipe was first mixed at the pharmacy ofJohn Wheeley LeaandWilliam Henry Perrins, the resulting product was so strong that it was considered inedible and the barrel was abandoned in the basement.

Looking to make space in the storage area a few years later, the chemists decided to try it again, discovering that the sauce had fermented and mellowed and was now palatable.

In 1838 the first bottles of "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce" were released to the general public. On 16 October 1897, Lea & Perrins relocated manufacturing of the sauce from their pharmacy to a factory in Aston on Midlands Road where it is still manufactured

AND

Currywurst

The invention of currywurst is attributed toHerta HeuwerinBerlinin 1949 after she obtained ketchup (or possiblyWorcestershire sauce) and curry powder fromBritish soldiers in Germany.She mixed these ingredients with other spices and poured it over grilled pork sausage. Heuwer started selling the cheap but filling snack at a street stand in theCharlottenburgdistrict of Berlin where it became popular with construction workers rebuilding the devastated city. She patented her sauce, called Chillup, in 1951

Roquefort bleu cheese seems to be the result of the eager of a young French guy to do what the French think they do best, and, it's not cooking, think "amour toujours".

He left his bread and pedestrian cheese in a cave and forgot all about it... as I already mentioned above. After a while the bread grew mold and that went into the cheese, et voilà, Roquefort was born.

According to historian andHerald for Wales, Major Francis Jones, 1908–93, the introduction of the recipe can be attributed to Captain Henry Lewis Edwardes 1788–1866. Edwardes, originally ofRhyd-y-gors, Carmarthenshire, was a veteran of the Napoleonic wars and held the position of Deputy-Lieutenant of Carmarthenshire. He is believed to have brought the recipe home after travels in India.

When the recipe was first mixed at the pharmacy ofJohn Wheeley LeaandWilliam Henry Perrins, the resulting product was so strong that it was considered inedible and the barrel was abandoned in the basement.

Looking to make space in the storage area a few years later, the chemists decided to try it again, discovering that the sauce had fermented and mellowed and was now palatable.

In 1838 the first bottles of "Lea & Perrins Worcestershire sauce" were released to the general public. On 16 October 1897, Lea & Perrins relocated manufacturing of the sauce from their pharmacy to a factory in Aston on Midlands Road where it is still manufactured

AND

Currywurst

The invention of currywurst is attributed toHerta HeuwerinBerlinin 1949 after she obtained ketchup (or possiblyWorcestershire sauce) and curry powder fromBritish soldiers in Germany.She mixed these ingredients with other spices and poured it over grilled pork sausage. Heuwer started selling the cheap but filling snack at a street stand in theCharlottenburgdistrict of Berlin where it became popular with construction workers rebuilding the devastated city. She patented her sauce, called Chillup, in 1951

Roquefort bleu cheese seems to be the result of the eager of a young French guy to do what the French think they do best, and, it's not cooking, think "amour toujours".

He left his bread and pedestrian cheese in a cave and forgot all about it... as I already mentioned above. After a while the bread grew mold and that went into the cheese, et voilà, Roquefort was born.

Ceaser salad was allegedly invented by an Italian American immigrant named Ceaser Cordiva who owned a restaurant in Mexico to avoid prohibition invented the dish after an insane rush and running out of ingredients.